High Blood Pressure, also known as Hypertension, is a serious health problem that affects one in every three adults in the U.S. It is a “silent killer” as people usually have no symptoms, yet it can cause some serious, and sometimes fatal conditions. These include stroke, heart attack, and kidney failure. The majority of cases have no known cause. For some people, the primary cause can be a result of using prescription medications, over-the-counter pain killers, cold remedies, and illegal drugs. Other causes include chronic alcohol intake, kidney failure, obstructive sleep apnea, and thyroid imbalance.
Normal blood flow moves through the body at a steady pressure and rate and reflects a normal blood pressure reading of 120/80 mmHg. When you have high blood pressure, the blood moves through the arteries at a much higher pressure, thereby putting much more pressure on the sensitive tissues and damaging the blood vessels. You are diagnosed with hypertension only if your blood pressure readings are persistently above 140/90 mmHg.
Increased weight and age add stress to the body. Excess weight increases the resistance to blood leaving the heart and does not allow the body to adapt to physiological changes as easily as a person at a healthy weight. As we get older, our bodies do not have the same ability to respond to stress and physiologic changes as they did when we were in our twenties.
Conventional Treatment
Conventional medicine will prescribe up to five different medications called anti-hypertensives, hoping to find the right combination of medicine that works for you without negative side effects. Some possible side effects are dizziness, erectile dysfunction, nausea, weight gain, and diarrhea, to name a few. At this time, this is the only treatment options available with conventional medicine. Some doctors are starting to link the importance of stress reduction, healthy eating, and regular exercise.
While this approach could get your blood pressure “under control” and possibly help you avoid some of the previously mentioned health crises, it does not get to the root cause of the problem. You may want to consider a Crazy Fun approach to healing your body from the inside out!
5 Action Steps to Improve Hypertension Naturally
- Eat Better: Eat a balanced diet high in raw fruits and vegetables. Your diet should be low in dairy, meat, alcohol, and processed foods. These foods increase inflammation and stress in the body, which increase blood pressure.
- Drink Better: Eliminate all caffeine and sodas from your diet. Caffeine causes constriction of the vessel walls and increases blood pressure. Diet sodas are not a healthier option as the artificial sweeteners affect your neurological system, which in turn decreases your body’s ability to adapt to stress. Try herbal teas and plain sparkling water with fresh lemon or berries for flavor and sweetness. If you love coffee, try Teecinno Herbal Coffee.
- Move More: Just 15 to 20 minutes of daily exercise will help to decrease the effects of stress on the body, aid in clearing your mind, and activate a natural endorphin release, improving mood and decreasing anxiety, all which lead to lowering your blood pressure. Also, when you move daily, it helps you to stay focused on maintaining a healthy lifestyle in other areas of your life.Exercise can be walking, dancing, yoga, biking, or whatever you enjoy. We are here at Crazy Fun Health and Home really like Teresa Tapp’s 15-minute T-Tapp exercise program. This is a low-impact workout that helps to stretch, tone, and strengthen the entire body while activating and moving your lymphatic fluids. Best of all, it is done in one simple 15-minute session per day! All you need is 4 square feet of space to move in—no equipment is needed. It just doesn’t get any easier than that!
- Stress Less: Decrease your stress levels. We just told you to move, and now we’re telling you to be still. Crazy, right? Not really, considering how busy most of us are and how little time we have to reflect and still our thoughts. Most of us just go through the day reacting to problems.Plan to spend 5 to 15 minutes in silence and stillness or meditation once or twice a day. You can do this in a quiet room, at the park, in your car, or in the bathroom at work, if that’s the only place you can get away by yourself. Yes, it’s that important!If you are not a pro at meditation or attaining stillness, here is a simple process to follow. Close your eyes and scan your body for stress. Take a deep breath in and, on the exhale, focus on releasing the stress, relaxing your muscles, and clearing your mind of any negative emotions. You can have complete silence or some relaxing music playing in the background. The main focus is in intentionally allowing yourself to relax and refresh your mind and body. You deserve this time for yourself.The 1 Giant Mind app can help you on your meditation path. It has a 12-step guided program to help you learn to meditate. It also has a 30-day challenge after the 12-step meditation guidance course is completed. Best of all, it is completely free!
- Say NO: Learning to say “no” is empowering and a huge stress reliever. So many times we say yes to others while saying no to taking care of ourselves. Think about what you have to do for your life to function optimally. Do you really need that lunch date with a friend? Do you really need to go to your second cousin’s baseball game across town? Or, do you need to fix healthy meals for you and your family, meditate, exercise, or just read a book to relax? Prioritizing your essential activities is a powerful tool for decreasing stress in your life and taking control of what truly matters to you.
Supplements for Improving Hypertension
- Turmeric with Black Pepper
Dosage: 500 milligrams 3 times per dayTurmeric is an anti-inflammatory and helps to decrease stress on the blood vessel walls while increasing circulation in the vessels.Black pepper aids in bioavailability of the turmeric in the body; therefore, the turmeric functions at a higher level than if you were to take it alone.
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Dosage: 3 to 6 milligrams per day in single or divided dosesOmega-3 fatty acids are found in fish oil, krill oil, or through seed oils such as flaxseed oil, sunflower seed oil, or sesame seed oil. We like Udo’s 3:6:9. You can put this in your smoothie, on top of veggies or cooked meat, or use as part of a salad dressing.
- Garlic
Dosage: 1,800 milligrams in single or divided dosesGarlic acts on the vessels in the body and causes the vessels to relax. No need to worry about smelling like garlic, there are many no smell brands on the market today. We like Solaray and Kyolic brands.
You are now armed with a treatment plan to start getting yourself back into a healthy groove! Don’t let a diagnosis scare you and prevent you from living a healthy life. Jump into the Crazy Fun way of life, and have your blood pressure under control in no time.
